How are the ALANA Communities Doing in the Current Legislative Session?

The ALANA Exit Poll in the last elections identified core priorities of ALANA voters and this analysis explores how those priorities are reflected in the current appropriation bills.

This analysis only focuses on current appropriations as listed in the various omnibus bills. There could be an error of omission which we acknowledge given the complexity of the analysis. Also the Governor’s budget is not included as we have been unable to access detailed data from the MMB website.

There is “participation bias” in these numbers – namely, these are proposals that came from the community or legislators. Theoretically these numbers could have looked differently if more or other proposals were introduced. So caution should be applied in the analysis of these numbers. The omnibus bills can be found here.

The total amount in these tables is $38 million or 0.1 % of at $45 billion budget. ALANA communities pay an estimated 7 percent of all state and local taxes in Minnesota.

Only 3 percent of the funding requests below are for business development proposals. In Minnesota there are 31,074 ALANA firms with $5.2 billion in sales employing $37,805 with annual payroll of $1 billion. Ranked as a group will be the 15th largest firm in Minnesota and the 9th largest employer. This is an important engine of economic growth. Chai cautions that this analysis does not imply the other ALANA proposals are not worthy for funding or that money should be allocated from those projects to business development. Rather, Chai points to the opportunity to invest in ALANA business development –as these businesses are also job-creators.

Majority of the proposals were in the education and health and human services area.

It is unclear whether the large pools of funds open to all Minnesotans operate with cultural intelligence or are accessible to the ALANA communities. Statutory language for ALANA inclusion like that in the housing funds should be standard across all these large funding pools ( see below)

The Transportation Policy bill mentions that in the over $800 million transportation spending the Commissioner can use 0.5 percent of the federal dollars in capacity building and collaboration with certain workforce organizations. That raises the question why this cannot be extended to state dollars too and business development that create jobs? As discovered during the construction of the Green Line, there is a great need to build capacity of organizations helping businesses and the communities cope with the disruptions of construction and to help position them to take advantage of the benefits of such construction.The other reference to business development was in the Omnibus Transportation Bill changing language as it refers to “good faith” efforts by contractors in utilizing ALANA businesses. It appears that such language change still does not put any teeth into holding prime contractors accountable in utilizing ALANA businesses.

In education funding most of this funding in this category may be statutory funding of American Indian education as it represents the bulk of funding in this category. The other proposal of around a million dollars was to grow the number of teachers of color in the school system. Given only 4 percent of all teachers are ALANA this funding makes a very small dent in the challenge. This analysis does not cover larger school funding categories but focuses only the education related appropriation requests.Chai observes that due attention has been given to closing the achievement gap but no agreement on core elements. Some of the policy changes include bringing flexibility in teacher testing for teaching licenses; making it easier for people with out-state licenses to teach in Minnesota; very small funding to grow the pool of ALANA teachers; greater attention and accountability in AP, PSEO and other options to earn college credit. There are two elements missing in this debate: How can we transform the learning environment to a 21st century one where “deeper learning” occurs through such strategies such as applied and collaborative learning labs? What incentives can be implemented to have parents/adults more engaged in the learning of their child?ALANA youth are not faring well in STEM education and urgent attention is needed here.In funding for higher education a concern has been raised by the Commissioner for Higher Education that the possibility of a drop in funding of the state grant program would have negative impacts on low income students.Chai thinks the goal to have 50 percent graduation rates for all students by 2025 is too low. Noteworthy are proposals to improve support services for students in higher education. Attention is needed for programs to improve the “learning environment” of college students.

ALANA economic interests at the minimum is an estimated $20 billion. As such there is need for ALANA representation in the conference committees. Only 3 ALANA legislators (Senators) are on 3 conference committees. So it is important that the ALANA economic interests are represented in those conference committees without ALANA legislators (especially the one determining the fate of the ethnic councils).